The cobbles beckon for a very spring like fall classic. Will we see another group sprint? Or will we see chaos? Or camera footage cut out, and we won't see anything? Hopefully not the last one.
As the riders start, you'll notice the finish line is just in front of the start line. Indeed, we are on a circuit, so make sure to keep an eye out for lapped riders that may be making the race situation appear messier. The riders will certainly be familiar with the finish by the time they get there for the final time.
Riabushenko and Gjolberg are the first to attack, almost immediately. Unsurprisingly, this sets off quite the flurry of hopeful escapees.
After a few kilometers, we now have a 6 man group at the front of the race:
Vink Gjolberg Per Van Zandbeek Bax Riabushenko
Attacks continue to go off behind as others try to reach this group before the elastic snaps.
As we reach the first serious cobblestones, six chasers reach the front group to make it a breakaway of 12 riders.
Vink Gjolberg Per Van Zandbeek Bax Riabushenko Bol Van der Sande Hirschi Higuita Vainionpää Pruus
None of these guys are particularly strong on cobblestones, but a few of them are strong riders in general, including a few good sprinters and puncheurs.
The pace in the peloton throughout the first half of the race is mild, but not absent. Plenty of lesser riders are hurting from basic attrition.
When the pace does rise periodically, it's Evonik who are controlling the front with quite a bit of manpower. It's a steady gap of about 3 minutes to the front, where Higuita has suffered a puncture and fallen behind.
About 100 km to go, and we see our first attack from a classics specialist on a dirt section. It's Okbamariam.
3 more try to spring clear as well once they see him get a gap. Takenouchi, Ghani, and Vermote are the move.
Luke Rowe, Xero's main man, is sensing an opportunity with a lot of men now in front. He jumps across to the chasers. He's the strongest man now in front of the peloton, but he's still got to bridge across.
The peloton is still big and not really panicking. All the teams you'd expect are joining in the relay.
Okbamariam has made it into the original breakaway, but surprisingly, the four chasers are having a really hard time closing that last bit of gap. After chasing for upwards of 25 km, they have not been able to get closer than 45 seconds, and are actually beginning to split apart here, with the peloton starting to close in.
Meanwhile, we're seeing our first major splits behind. Lovassy is the only noteworthy name caught out here.
We cross the finish line with the visibly stretched out peloton at 62 km to go. Trentin's T-Mobile leads the charge. The break has 1'35''.
Coming off of this section, we have another split. Saber, Havik, and Thwaites are the riders surprisingly caught out, even though this race should suit their rider type well. They're scrambling to get back on. We also are seeing a lot of the sprinters fall behind, the most notable of which at the moment is Modolo.
Evonik are taking the opportunity to keep the pressure on. Here's Dzamastagic emptying the tank for his team on the front. They've caught the four chasers now.
Lierse are also making their jerseys known at the front now. A small slope has brought the last split basically back into contact, but now a bunch of those riders are cracking and causing some chaos at the back.
The breakaway continues to work well together with no attacks. Vainionpää is the only one who's been dropped. They have just over a minute now with 45 km to go.
Apparently this cohesion won't last long however with the gap shrinking. Van Zandbeek accelerates, with Van der Sande in his slipstream. 39 km to go.
Another lap, another big split, this one leaving only 44 guys in the peloton. Thwaites and Havik are unfortunately back here again, and once again will try to scramble back on. You'll also see all those previous chasers are here. Lander and Harrison
are also gone, as is Lo Cicero. There are no pure sprinters left in the front, although guys like Petit are still surviving.
The previous attack in the breakaway has been subdued, and a bunch of guys have cracked in the flurry. 5 riders remain at the front with a minute gap at 28 km to go, but even they look tired.
Gjolberg Pruus Van der Sande Hirschi Bol
Then, after a few more kilometers of chase, there's a stall in the peloton. No one wants to burns all their matches. With the gap swelling back to 1'20'' and under 20km to go, young gun Mads Pedersen seizes his opportunity and attacks away!
When Breen bridges up, the peloton suddenly awakens. Everyone's out of the saddle trying to get back on terms.
The duo are pulled back, but Breen isn't done, and goes again. 12 km are left, and we're still looking at a 50 second gap tot he front. Could this be a shocking breakaway win?
That's it for Thwaites again at the back. This time, it seems unlikely he will come back, as he looks cooked. Just caught out of position all day, and paid the price.
Hirschi and Bol are done. Just three men at the head of the race.
A massive attack is launched from the peloton! Blythe is trying to seal the deal on all of his team's work earlier. He doesn't appear to have caught many off guard, but his sheer power is forcing gaps!
Then, just as he sits up, Bush counters with an attack of his own. Under 10 km and they are rapidly approaching the remaining breakaway riders.
The surge seems to have done in a lot of outsiders, particularly the hybrid/sprinter types. Saber, Havik, and Lander, who had just about gotten back in touch, are gapped. Joining them are Weber and Petit.
In front of them, there's a tiny bit of space opening up to Kristoff and Senechal despite 12 riders still being in front of them!
8 km to go and the break is caught. Back to square one. The latter two favorites are back in the bunch.
And there's a bit of a general regrouping, with that second group coming back as well, although most of those guys look finished.
That regrouping lasts only a few hundred meters, before Blythe jumps again! This time he's getting a bit of space. The only cobbles left are those at the finish, but he's willing to do this on paved roads.
5 km to go. Blythe has about 10-15 seconds, but he can't shake the pack. Believe it or not, that's Van der Sande trying to respond!
Now it's Per accelerating out of a corner with 3 km left, and dragging the group with him.
This string of attackers is leaving two huge favorites to play catch up. Trentin and Kristoff are not in prime position here.
While they try to react, Per catches Blythe and flies past him. Could this be the kill blow?
It doesn't look like it. Per sits up as we approach the red kite. 12 riders have made the selection. We enter our final cobbled section leading to the finish.
Per Blythe Bush Spengler Daniel Polanc Pedersen Senechal Trentin Kristoff Breen
Blythe opens up what is an unorthodox seated sprint. Trentin and Kristoff have made up a lot of ground and swung over to the right to try to take the inside line around the final corner at 500 meters to go.
The strategy works for Kristoff, who has used his kick to accelerate out of the corner and find a gap towards the front. But Blythe still leads by a bike length, with Bush trying to pass him on the left. The rest of the groups seems to be moving with the some momentum.
Remember the second line here is the finish!
Kristoff has the most speed and is passing Blythe on his right at the most opportune moment. Unless somebody has a sudden kick left in the tank, he's looking very good. Bush follows a bike length behind, then Polanc, Daniel, Vanbilsen, Per, and Trentin are in a dead heat in the next row.
He looked in trouble earlier, but Alexander Kristoff managed his efforts perfectly for the finish, and gets to raise his arms in glory as the winner of Rheden GP!
Blythe cracks in the final meters, allowing Bush to pass him for 2nd place. Another great result for ISA in a season full of them. Bush attacked to force more selection, and it paid dividends for him.
Blythe just barely manages to hold on for 3rd, and completes the podium. His team worked the most, he attacked the most, and he launched his sprint early. He lived up to his responsibilities as the favorite. But he might have been a tad overzealous. Still, he gets a podium, so all is not lost.
Daniel just misses out the podium, finishing 4th. He was actually one who kept this race together by reacting quickly to attacks. Didn't have the speed in the finish, but 4th isn't a bad result.
Trentin rolls in 5th. He gets a top 5, but he didn't really show himself or showcase his talents.
Vanbilsen finishes a pretty anonymous 6th. Besides that one moment where his team came to the front early, he pretty much just followed wheels today.
Polanc edges out Pedersen for 7th. Isostar had two men in the final 12 man move, so they're probably not super happy to only be getting 7th here, from the more passive of their leaders.
Pedersen, on the other hand, played an aggressive race. He showed (for not the first time this year) that he's willing to go long and try his luck. he loves to be aggressive and force the issue. Considering how early he went, and how young he is, it was quite a good performance to stay at the front and get 8th.
Per is 9th. He went all in with his counter to Blythe and just didn't have the legs to cap it off.
Rounding out the top 10 is Breen, who also was aggressive today early, but managed to stay with it for at least a top 10.
That means Spengler misses out. While the race was more selective than the last few years, the race didn't really revolve around a lot of attrition on the cobbles, and he was never going to do well in a sprint. Without attacking, this was a likely fate.
A similar but even more disappointing story can be told for Senechal. TInkoff did work quite a bit, and the Frenchman was one of the strongest cobbles guys on paper here. But he never made the difference, and faltered in the sprint, falling to 12th.
Behind, Zhupa, Bolivar, and Chatarunga complete the top 15.
